On a routine excursion, a day cruise ship is hijacked off the coast of Florida and “wired” with explosives. At the same time, car bombs explode outside government buildings across America, including the DEA headquarters in Virginia. As these startling revelations unfold the perpetrators turn out to be the Los Zetas drug cartel, who have joined forces with Al-Qaeda bomb-makers to exact the release of a nefarious drug boss jailed in Miami.

Coast Guard Rear Admiral Ray Hanna has the ship surrounded but finds himself on a political leash. He can’t release Alvarez and he can’t storm the ship without endangering the 218 passengers. It’s a standoff. When the hijackers begin blowing up passengers wearing life jackets rigged with C-4—makeshift suicide vests—Hanna receives 24 hours to end the deadlock or else, leaving him with just one unthinkable choice.

For Captain Skip Myles, the situation transcends belief. The unimaginable shock of losing his vessel to armed terrorists only ten miles from port has left him a bewildered captive on his own ship. When he doesn’t come home from his evening cruise, his worried wife calls her ex-Navy SEAL brother in Detroit. Cal rushes to her side and ultimately embarks on a lone mission to rescue Skip, convinced that if he doesn’t, no one else will.

Later that night, armed with a black-market Uzi and some borrowed scuba gear, Cal Stringer falls back into the black waters of Gulf of Mexico for his two-mile underwater swim to the Majestic Star—plunging headlong into a deadly showdown between the U.S. Coast Guard and the do-or-die suicidal hijackers.

This is where our story begins. The stage is set and the outcome promises to be bloody.FINALIST AT THE BEVERLY HILLS FILM FESTIVAL FOR BEST SCREENPLAY

“Sometimes we don’t get to pick our battles . . . they pick us.”

On a routine excursion, a day cruise ship is hijacked off the coast of Florida and “wired” with explosives. At the same time, car bombs explode outside government buildings across America, including the DEA headquarters in Virginia. As these startling revelations unfold the perpetrators turn out to be the Los Zetas drug cartel, who have joined forces with Al-Qaeda bomb-makers to exact the release of a nefarious drug boss jailed in Miami.

Coast Guard Rear Admiral Ray Hanna has the ship surrounded but finds himself on a political leash. He can’t release Alvarez and he can’t storm the ship without endangering the 218 passengers. It’s a standoff. When the hijackers begin blowing up passengers wearing life jackets rigged with C-4—makeshift suicide vests—Hanna receives 24 hours to end the deadlock or else, leaving him with just one unthinkable choice.

For Captain Skip Myles, the situation transcends belief. The unimaginable shock of losing his vessel to armed terrorists only ten miles from port has left him a bewildered captive on his own ship. When he doesn’t come home from his evening cruise, his worried wife calls her ex-Navy SEAL brother in Detroit. Cal rushes to her side and ultimately embarks on a lone mission to rescue Skip, convinced that if he doesn’t, no one else will.

Later that night, armed with a black-market Uzi and some borrowed scuba gear, Cal Stringer falls back into the black waters of Gulf of Mexico for his two-mile underwater swim to the Majestic Star—plunging headlong into a deadly showdown between the U.S. Coast Guard and the do-or-die suicidal hijackers.

This is where our story begins. The stage is set and the outcome promises to be bloody.